This reminds me of a discussion that I've seen somewhere, with a Russian journalist who ran to the US after becoming a target for participating in the 2011–2013 Russian protests.
- What's the public opinion of Russian people on Putin?
- There's no such thing as public opinion in Russia.
- What do you mean, I can go out, sample 1000 people and ask them a question. That's what I mean by public opinion.
- You can do that, but the result is useless. There are studies on the topic - people will just say whatever was on last week's [state controlled] news.
> You can do that, but the result is useless. There are studies on the topic - people will just say whatever was on last week's [state controlled] news.
I doubt the correlation is perfect, which makes such polls non-useless. For example, comparing questions on which the correlation is more or less strong would allow identifying the degree of trust in the state media depending on the topic they're reporting on.
Yeah but the point is that >95% of signal is drowned in propaganda. And the other point is just how much is that inconceivable to someone with access to free press, as exemplified by your response.
- What's the public opinion of Russian people on Putin?
- There's no such thing as public opinion in Russia.
- What do you mean, I can go out, sample 1000 people and ask them a question. That's what I mean by public opinion.
- You can do that, but the result is useless. There are studies on the topic - people will just say whatever was on last week's [state controlled] news.